Our Christmas week was very pleasant and to top it all off . . . we got enough snow on Christmas Eve to make it a white Christmas! Monday, the 23rd, we spent the morning making cookies - Spritz cookies, which are my very, very favorite! Then we all went to the Mount Vernon movie theatre and saw The Hobbit. Our second viewing and Dad's first! It was better than ever! But more about The Hobbit later. ;o) Then we rushed home for a quick dinner and then rushed down to Church for the Christmas Eve service. (They do their candlelight and cookie service on the 23rd, so that everyone can have Christmas Eve to spend with their families.) It was very nice and fun all around!

Christmas Eve we wrapped presents and finished getting the house ready, etc. In the night it began snowing! Yay! Christmas dawned and we all were a bit tired. But excited! Actually, Sis and I had been dying to give Mom her presents since we finished them! But we all got dressed and had breakfast. Mom and Sarah put everything under the tree while Dad and I cleaned up and got coffee made, which we took upstairs with us.

We had loads of fun and took our time so that we could all enjoy everybody's gifts. Gramma Gail sent us two super-fun surprises! A box with a flowering tea set and a set of different kinds of salt from around the world! Sis and I had flowering tea once - many years ago - at Mrs. Keultjes'. It was so cool! This set has six different kinds and one is called "Dragon Lily", so we are going to save it until March when The Hobbit comes out on DVD! Flowering tea is where the tea leaves and flower petals are sewn together into little pellets and you drop it into a glass tea pot and in about five minutes, the pellet opens up into a beautiful flower. I finally got to give Sis her sketchbook, although it does still have spaces to fill up. But I think that we were most excited about giving Mom her Poirot presents! We made her little dolls of Poirot and "Pat" from Triangle at Rhodes, which is her favorite short episode. Pat came out so adorable, with her souvenirs and her red hair! I also painted Poirot on a glass mug for her and made a matching wool felt coaster that says "I'd rather be watching . . . POIROT". Embroidered the same on a pillowcase for her to use in the backroom when watching movies! Sis and I were particularly thrilled, as it was a secret all our own and Mom could never guess what we were doing!

Mom gave us Hobbit souvenir money and Sis and I had fun in the evening shopping online for our Hobbit souvenirs! We each got a letter opener, a replica key to Erebor, a key and map keychain, and I got a Legolas and Tauriel poster. When they all arrive, I'll have to take a photo. Sis and I are really enjoying The Hobbit!

Day after Christmas, the Keultjeses came for the annual Christmas dinner. This time we didn't do a Cuban meal and we did a soup buffet instead. That was really fun, as it was much more laid back and allowed more time for visiting! It was a really fun evening! Both of the girls had come home for Christmas, so everybody was there!

For untousa child is born, untousasonis given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:5-7

I've posted a blog entry for Deanna Durbin's birthday for so long, that I thought I would do one this year as well. Today would have been her 92 birthday. I have spent the months since the news of her death was released collecting articles for my numerous Deanna scrapbooks. Actually had friends in four different states looking in newspapers nation-wide! Although no longer with us, her beautiful music can still be enjoyed and continues to bring a smile as I listen to her recordings in the kitchen!

John 11: 25-26

"Jesus said unto her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

Oh, tarry and be strong;Tell God in prayerWhat is thy hidden grief;Thy secret care.Yet, if no answer come;Pray on and wait:God's time is always best;Never too late.- Mrs. O.F. Walton(The Lost Clue, 1910)

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There are two kinds of people - those who don't do what they want to do, so they write down in a diary about what they haven't done, and those who are too busy to write about it because they're out doing it! - The More the Merrier (1943)

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'Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley , and rejoices in his strength; he laughs at fear, and is not dismayed. With shaking and rage he races over the ground.'- Job 39

"I learned something when I went back to Helstone, expecting it to be the paradise I knew as a child. Try as we might - happy as we were - we can't go back."- North and South